How many international rap stars do you know that ride the tube? Well, you probably don't really know any international rap stars, but Ellen Grossman does; she met Jay Z on his way to Brooklyn to perform.

It was encounters of the cute kind in New York, as Jay Z boarded the subway, only to find an empty seat next to the only person on that tube that didn't know his name: Ellen Grossman. "Are you famous?" she asked Jay Z as he sat next to her on the crowded R Train. "Yes" he replied, before humbly explaining, "Not very famous, you don't know me." Grossman has since become a viral hit, and talking to The Guardian, she said, "My first thought was oh my God there's been a disaster upstairs," and "They were all taking pictures of a man I did not recognise." But, after a nice chat, it seems she realised she was talking to someone of celebrity status. "We had such a nice conversation and then it became obvious during the conversation that he was very famous," Grossman said.

Jay Z wrote his website down for her so she could check him out when she got home. "He did write down on the back of an envelope his website," Grossman said. "When I went and looked at his website I found - of course he highlights his own work - but he just gave tremendous amount of space on it to other artists, collaborations with other people, to just highlighting other people and I appreciated that about him and had that feeling that he was giving me attention in the same way. It was a very positive experience."